Pages

Monday, December 27, 2010

Yesterday was our anniversary - Dave and I have been married for 10 years. He commented that he never thought he'd be driving a mini-van 10 years ago. I'd have to add to that by saying I never thought we'd live in Kansas!

Then

Now

Ten years older, plus 3 kids, a dog, our second house, in a new state. Last weekend we had the honor of attending a wedding. The father of the groom mentioned in his speech that his friends who were in his wedding were now there at his son's wedding. I am so happy that we are still friends with those who were in our wedding party and God willing one day I hope they will be at my kids' weddings!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

This week Zachary had fire safety and the firetruck came to school on Thursday. The kids dressed up like firemen and pictures should be available soon! Meanwhile, he did some firetruck coloring and art projects as well as projects related to the weekly parsha.

I think Zachary did a great job coloring this in! When asked why it is blue, he said his teacher told him to make it colorful!

Zachary as fireman

Zachary says this is him davening (praying)

Zachary learned how Yaakov crossed his hands when blessing Efrayim and Menashe

Thursday, December 16, 2010

On Monday we attended Gabbie's dance class for Parent Watch Day. The girls are doing great with their ballet and tap dances! Gabbie loves ballet the most, and when we were in New Jersey, she even taught her ballet dance to her cousin Eli who is almost 14 years old! She also tells me that she wants to be a ballet teacher when she grows up.

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon at Union Station, thanks to the prize package I won from KCParent.com. I was one of 100 winners - very generous of them! We received free passes to Science City, rides on the Jones Store Train, tickets to the Planetarium Show One World, One Sky, and admission to the holiday model train exhibit (this is free anyway). We all enjoyed and had a good time!

You may wonder why only one of these projects was made by Gabbie - well aside from being away the few days leading up to Hanukkah, Gabbie's class spend much time preparing for their Hanukkah show. If you have not already watched these videos on facebook, you might enjoy watching them now!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

You may remember my stressing about what to get the kids for Hanukkah. Here is the post about Gabbie's possible gifts and here is the post about Zachary's. I ended up sticking with some of the same ideas, but did not end up buying the magna-tiles and definitely stuck to less expensive gifts overall. Here is what they got:

Again, I don't like commercialization or going overboard with gifts for Hanukkah, but I was happy with getting the kids a few new fun things and a few new useful things to enjoy during the holiday and beyond.

So as you know, we didn't make it home to Kansas City for the first night of Hanukkah as planned. Although this made me sad at first, it ended up being very nice because the kids got to see their NJ cousins again AND two of my nephews flew in from Israel that day and otherwise we would have missed them!

We ate and the kids opened their first presents and the next morning (after getting lunch to go from Sammy's Bagels) we were off to the airport. My nephew came along for the ride and it was great to get to talk to him. For those who have been asking, traveling with kids was not near as stressful as I had feared. Firstly, much to my relief, there are no new x-ray scanners at Continental in Kansas City, and they are only in Terminal B in Newark, so we avoided them both ways. The kids are good travelers and were very well behaved on both legs of the trip. On the way home, we even were able to grab an extra seat for Simon's carseat, where he sat during take off, but then I held him the rest of the way anyway. The flights were smooth even in the baby planes they fly on that route, and overall, everyone was happy.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Last Monday (yes I am a week behind in posts!) was the day my sister-in-law Melanie went back to Israel. So after she packed her suitcases full of American products and packed a suitcase in each car trunk, we went to Sammy's for a goodbye breakfast.

We also got lunch from Sammy's and brought it with us to my parents' house where we hung out for the afternoon. Then we had to say goodbye to them too, and our next stop was Lori and Andrew's house for dinner from a new (or new to us) restaurant, Tacos N Things. It was quite good. We also got to celebrate Andrew's birthday, and the kids enjoyed playing together again.

On Tuesday, Dave took Gabbie and Zachary on the train to the city. They went on the Staten Island Ferry so that the kids could see the Statue of Liberty (or the "Skatue of Liberry" if you're Zachary!). I stayed behind with the baby and we did a little shopping with my sister-in-law Jodi. For dinner, it was guess what? Sammy's Pizza again! And then we got all of our things packed up to go.

Wednesday was pouring rain and windy. Dave and I went out to Trader Joe's and the candy store and by the time we got back our flight home had been cancelled. We were put onto another flight, which also ended up getting cancelled. As it turned out, every flight back to Kansas City was cancelled, and it was a good thing, because flying in one of those tiny planes in that weather probably wouldn't have been much fun. We rescheduled for the following day and got to spend the first night of Hanukkah with our family in NJ - stay tuned for more on that!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Last Sunday was a busy day in which we got to hang out with lots of our NJ friends! I have to say, driving through Highland Park, I was struck by how SMALL everything is! Our old house looked tiny. The streets are so skinny. There are cars everywhere! I honestly found myself happy that I live in Kansas.

However, I most certainly miss seeing my NJ friends on a regular basis! First up was lunch at Jerusalem Pizza with Nancy and family. We then walked around town a bit.

Next up was a visit to our good friends Bethany and Josh, where we got to meet their new baby girl. I also helped Bethany get the baby into her new baby carrier. She has the Lillebaby, which I had seen in the box before, but hadn't heard about. It seems diverse and comfortable enough!

After visiting our old synagogue to see the renovations they have completed, it was off to Park Place for dinner. I had put out a note on facebook that we would be there for dinner, and we ended up seeing a bunch of friends that way. The kids even got some play time in, which was very nice.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

On our second day in NJ, which was last Friday, we started the day with bagels from Sammy's. Since my brother-in-law owns Sammy's, we ate there quite a bit on the trip. Actually though, we ate the bagels at Dave's parents house, along with our friends, Lori and Andrew. Andrew and Dave then went to visit the cemetary and remember together our good friend who passed away six years ago. Meanwhile, our respective children bonded and played together. Zachary even managed to get everyone to watch his current favorite, the Letter Factory, before play time was over.

We all headed out to Sammy's Pizza for lunch, where I got my favorite salad and experienced some New Jersey rudeness as people refused to give up chairs that were holding coats and empty baby car seats in order that we have space to sit.

After lunch and a bit of shopping, we headed to Dave's sister's house where we spent a lovely Shabbos with the family. (8 adults, 8 kids! Although my oldest niece is 21, so she's not really a kid!) Zachary once again entertained his cousins, and when it was time for bed he proclaimed that he wouldn't be tired forever! Of course, after a tantrum and a bit of bed switching, he fell asleep within minutes.

After Shabbos, Gabbie enjoyed some dancing with Aunt Jodi and Cousin Atara and then we said goodbye, thinking we would not see the kids again on our trip. This turned out not to be the case as our travel plans changed later in the week. More about that in a future entry!